Author Ken Bruen’s Sanctuary’ is pure noir

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sunday

May 31, 2009 at 3:31 AMMay 31, 2009 at 9:21 AM

Jack Taylor, disgraced Irish police officer, is back for his seventh novel, and all the brawling and drinking in the first six have taken a toll on him. He’s walking with a limp now. He no longer has all his teeth. He wears a hearing aid. And he feels as bad as he looks.

So when a psychopath going by the name “Benedictus” sends Jack a shopping list of future kills — one cop, one judge, one nun — he’s inclined to ignore it. Then he notices the last item on the list: a child.

Jack tells himself he doesn’t give a hoot, although he expresses it in more belligerent language. He’s got enough problems of his own, which is why he spends half the book on a bender and the other half swallowing Xanax. But Jack Taylor’s curse is that he does care about the blood of innocents, especially the blood he can never seem to wash off his own hands.

“Sanctuary,” like the previous Taylor novels, is pure noir, the characters ranging from evil to defeated, the atmosphere gloomy to the point of despair, the writing as sharp as a razor slicing a windpipe.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.